The present disclosure relates to an inflatable product structure, and in particular to an inflatable product structure which is light in weight and low in cost.
Inflatable products, are light in weight, easy to house, and easy to carry. Such products technologies have been used for outdoor items and toys, as well as various household goods including inflatable beds, inflatable sofas and the like.
Many inflatable products utilize internal structures in order to form the product into its intended, predetermined shape upon inflation. For example, one type of inflatable bed, referred to as a wave-shaped, straight-strip or I-shaped inflatable bed, may include a tension-band type internal structure arranged along wave-shaped, straight-line or I-shaped pathways within the internal cavity. Another type of inflatable bed, referred to as a column-type inflatable bed, has tension bands arranged into honeycomb-shaped or cylindrical structures within the inflatable cavity.
These internal tension-band structures disposed in the cavity of the inflatable bed give shape to the bed as internal pressure increases, thereby preventing the inflatable bed from expanding evenly on all sides in the manner of a balloon. More particularly, in order to maintain an inflatable bed as a rectangular shape, the tension bands join the upper and lower surfaces of the inflatable bed to one another. To allow passage of pressurized air to both sides of these joining structures, the tension bands may be formed as belts stretching between the upper and lower surfaces, or as vertical expanses of material with air columns formed therein. The number and spacing of the tension bands is proportional to the sharpness of the rectangularity of the inflated product. That is to say, a greater number and/or linear extent of tension bands within the pressurized cavity results in a more “flat” bed surface.
In conventional inflatable products such as the inflatable beds described above, the tension bands are made of PVC sheets with a sufficient thickness to ensure spreading of force and concomitant reductions in stress in the product material. For example, the tension bands of known inflatable beds or sofas may have a thickness of about 0.36 mm. For some known water carrier devices, such as inflatable swimming pools, the internal tension bands may have a thickness of about 0.38 mm, while “sandwich” type inflatable swimming pools may have a thickness of 0.7-0.8 mm.
Thus, conventional inflatable structures utilizing belt- or sheet-like PVC tension bands meet the force requirements of the product by varying the thickness of the tension bands. However, where continuous plastic strips or belts are utilized, such tension bands contribute to increased weight of the inflatable product. Similarly, an increase in thickness and/or spatial density of solid-strip tension bands also increases the compressed/folded volume of the deflated inflatable structure.